


Touched by the heart.

by neko_youkai



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 16:05:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19135456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neko_youkai/pseuds/neko_youkai
Summary: No one who has touched the gods can ever remain the same. Moana slowly realizes that she's not the same girl she once was.





	Touched by the heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Well I haven't written any sort of fic in years, but this little blurb just wanted to be done so I tossed it out there. It's heavily unedited, but here we are. Enjoy.

No one who has touched the gods can remain unchanged. When I took up the task that the ocean had given me and set sail to return the heart of Te fiti, I never thought that I would not return the same as I left. But I carried the heart of a goddess and with it her protection and power. No mere mortal can do that.

I never thought of those things though once I returned to my island. There were so many other things that had to be done. I spent time showing my people all that they had lost. There were so many new islands to discover. That first year we barely stayed still in one place. It was thrilling to see places that we had only known through legends passed down to us. 

The second year we started to find a pattern of the best places to hunt and fish and when. Soon we began to follow a rhythm returning to the islands that seemed best for us. My father stepped down from leadership during the fourth year, stating that I had been leading us since the first day away from the island so now it was just official. There was so much to be done that I didn’t even notice that while those I grew with started to grow older and marry, starting families of their own, I remain unchanged. 

In those first years, I rarely saw Maui. He would appear now and again, flying across the sky as we sailed, or showing up on shore late in the evening, saddling up with some sort of fish and a demand to catch up for an hour or so before he was off again, having some new adventure. There was more for him to do than to deal with my village. 

Maybe it was seeing him unchanged that kept me from worrying about my own still youthful face in the mirror even as the faces of those close to me grew lined and worn from time. I watched my friends raise children and find joy in their lives. Part of me wanted that as well, but no matter how many tried to match me with family and friends so I would not be left behind, none of them caught my eye. .. 

None of those men could match the demigod that started to appear more frequently during the dark nights to visit. Was it really that surprising when my heart started to beat faster whenever he came close, or the times that we’d fallen asleep under the stars talking of the world out there? 

But I’d never thought that the demigod would feel the same, even as he pressed his lips to mine that warm summer night out on my small raft, floating as if we were sailing to Te fiti once more. He stayed with my people after that night. It was the following summer that we married. The flowers were in full bloom and we had led my people as close to Te Fiti as we dared, wanting to celebrate our union with the gods. 

I worried though about the difference between my husband and I. He was a demigod, a hero of legends, one that would never age and die. Even then I had not realized the truth of myself, and Maui was quite happy not informing me of it either as life went on. 

I admit now that I was at least somewhat willful in my ignorance. I wanted to be normal, a chieftess of my people but little more than that. I should have known after our first child came. And part of me did I think. I healed too quickly after the hard labor and the struggles that affected other women afterwards had never bothered me. 

Time moved so quickly then, passing by in peaceful days and joyful nights. But in life, sorrow must always come and it was my father that finally forced me to face the truth. In my mind, he’d always been this great and strong leader. The man that was greater than men. But one day he fell while preparing to board the ship. I truly looked at my father then and saw the crows feat at the edges of his eyes, the lines that came from so many years of smiling, and from sorrow. He had grown old and I had never noticed because I had not. 

Maui had seemed surprised when I asked about it. He said that he’d always assumed that I had realized it and just did not want to speak of it. I told him that I never thought such a thing could even be possible. But Maui had not always been a demigod either. The gods had decided it for him, as they had for me it seemed. 

We laid my father out by the sea, and then my mother a few years later. 

By the time our children were grown, I had grown tired of watching those I loved grow old and die. When I told my husband, Maui had given me a sad sort of smile before gathering me into his arms. He understood. It had been why he’d rarely visited during those first few years, afraid to watch time change me as well. It was only after he realized that I had been granted the same gifts he had been that he knew he had to be there when the time came for me as well. 

Our eldest took up the mantle of chieftain proudly and we watched from the edge of the shore before boarding our ship. We used to visit the islands every year to see our children, but soon time stopped having the same meaning for us as it did for mortals. One year became five, five became ten, and then we saw our youngest old and withered. We stopped coming after that. 

Now and again we come upon a village now and stay for a few nights, hearing stories of great Maui and his heroics, and of Moana, demigoddess of the sea who had brought the seafaring ways back to the people and brought the heart of Te Fitii back to her. They never know that the young couple they feed that night as guests are the very legends they speak of 

Sometimes Maui is tempted to tell them that the great legends are true and the very demigods they speak of stand there, but I lay my hand on his arm and smile at him before shaking my head. After all, it is better to remain stories in the people’s hearts. They would not understand. No one who has touched the gods can remain the same.


End file.
